the topic says it all.. i'm looking for a country with cheap costs of living ( i will get money from working online so i don't mind high unemployment in this country)

but i need pretty fast internet (would be even better with low pings to europe...), good weather ( i'm in Poland, and it's very cold ), and low costs of living. i wouldn't mind the sea or ocean too

let's look at what i so far considered:

Thailand/Malaysia - it's not cold for sure, but internet is pretty slow and since my work depends on it, i don't know... also, i looked at telegeography, and all traffic from east-asia is going to US and then to Europe, that's really bad... it's slow i checked and there is average of 500 ms ping replies )

Vietnam/Laos - underdeveloped still. some stuff is actually more expepsinve han in europe (like internet). won't even say a word about internet speed.

Cyprus/Malta - pretty warm and close to europe. but internet costs and overall costs of living not really good.

Uruguay - so far the best bet, but internet still not quite good... and i don't know spanish but that i can learn. but then again - electronics in Uruguay is so expensive, and so cheap compared to malaysia.

any other ideas? Bali in Indonesia also quite good, but also slow internet...

more developed countries are more expesinve... but maybe i missed some small (or not so small) country that is pretty cheap but also has quite fast internet? if you have any ideas, please post them here

Suriname??
Cheap living costs, fantastic weather, Internet is pretty good and you can survive with speaking English ;-)

Internet is not slow in general in Thailand and Malaysia. I just spent a year in Chiang Mai, and then in Penang. If you have been there before and you found slow service, then things have changed a lot. For instance, in Chiang Mai, I found several places with free high speed wi-fi. I was chatting to someone who spends every winter there, and she said the previous year there had been none at all. There were several guest houses that offered ADSL in their rooms. I'd put both countries right back on your list.

Outside of the big tourist cities in Italy, life is fairly good value for what you get --- good pollution standards, high quality food, subsidized or free entertainment. Some small cities have started free wifi for their populations. Transportation is well-organized and subsidized. Free emergency medical care. And you can't beat the weather -- seasonal change, but never extreme --- or the scenery.

Lisa

Ok, ok... most of Vietnam is hotter than Hades with high humidity. However, there is one city in the mountains that fits your stated desires... Dalat or Da Lat. Dalat enjoys springlike weather year-round and has high-speed internet. When I was there two years ago (2006), a new, very secure, two-bedroom apartment could be rented for $100 a month. At that time, you could have lived a reasonable lifestyle for $500 (not including car, but transportation is readily available or you could buy a motorcycle for $1000).

Here is an article that I wrote while in Dalat:
internationalliving dot com/countries/other_countries__1/asia/vietnam/country_archive/07_18_06 ... Big White Buddha
I also wrote several other stores that were never published plus one story that was published in the Internation Living print edition. If you contact me outside this forum, I would be happy to share as long as you agree not to post them.

As a hobby, I have been researching "Eternal Spring Living" types of locations worldwide... I have over 200 such cities in my database. There are two types of places that have "Eternal Spring" type climates, mountains in the tropics and sub-tropic beach/island locations with cold off-shore water. Dalat is an example of a tropical mountain paradise and San Diego or Sydney are examples of beach locations with near perfect weather. Again, if you contact me outside this forum, I would be happy to share as long as you agree not to post the data.

My plan is to move in a couple of years to a "Cheap location with spring-like weather and high-speed internet"... and I also make my living online. So, we have some common interests.

Ron

Check out Cambodia , it has improved considerably and is cheap to live , internet can be expensive for high speed but a land line only costs $9.00 a month with no international calling .Online - your ISP in Cambodia - Home , i have found them to be very reliable and helpfull , Colin

I disagree about the cost of living in Cyprus. Our car tax is about €50 & car insurance is cheaper than the UK. water bills about €20 per month, Electricity is similar. You don't get taxed until you are earning around €17k per year either.

If you buy internationally recognised trade-named food then its more expensive but I just bought a kg of cherries for €2 and apricots for €2.50. You can probably double that price in the UK.

But what does it cost to buy or rent a place to live? That's the first thing you have to be sure is covered. Also, coming from the UK, what seems cheap to you isn't cheap to the rest of the world. The original poster is from Poland, so there is a good chance that the cheap prices you quoted would seem really expensive to him, especially if he is comparing them to prices in Malaysia or Thailand. For instance, a mango cut up and put on a stick for easy eating was about 30 US cents in Thailand, in a tourist area. That's 15 British pence.

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did you check on the philippines? the weather is good all throughout the year and fast internet. Everything is cheap be it food & drinks, transportation, housing and medical services... everything!

This is an interesting subject, but what about security?